Thursday, February 19, 2015

Mission: Peoria 2nd P Day in Peoria! 25th Pday on mission!

This week was a really great week. I left my first area after six
months of service there. I will seriously miss all of the people I
worked with and, of course, Elder Shurtleff. However, I am very
excited for my next journey here in Peoria. Let me just tell
you....it's beautiful here. It's half city, half rural and it reminds
me a ton of home. Some of the roads we bike on remind me of the roads
in Oronogo: narrow. Here was my week!:

Monday: it was a Monday work day. Those are always rough! I actually
did my laundry today because I was pretty sure I was getting
transferred. Not much happened during the day, but we did end up going
to Jack in the Box for lunch. It was my first time eating there and it
was pretty good! It was pretty warm for February...I honestly keep
forgetting it's winter. We taught Eliza the Restoration with Jenga
blocks. It was pretty fun!! They had homemade pizza and asparagus and
gave some to us. It was a blast! I love teaching Eliza and her family.
Temp: 83°F

Tuesday: P-Day. I got word that I am transferring out of my first
area. The members in Shaw Butte and Moon Mountain because my family so
it was pretty hard leaving them. It felt like just yesterday that I
was walking into Sister Simon's front door for the first time. It's
already been six months—crazy. We had two lessons tonight and they
both went alright. An investigator accepted a baptismal invite which
was cool. Too bad I won't be there to finish teaching him, but I
really enjoyed the time I had to teach him. Packing is stupid so it
was good to get that out of the way. I apologize again for the short
letter last week; I packed until like 6pm. Then we had to go out.
Temp: 81°F

Wednesday: I got transferred! I am now with Elder Flynn in Peoria, AZ.
He came out with me so it's pretty cool to be with a companion who is
learning too. We will definitely learn together. I got assigned to be
senior companion so that will definitely be a new experience. Elder
Flynn was with his trainer for four transfer periods (all 6 months) so
that's new. I'm his first companion that isn his trainer! We cover the
Centennial and Oakwood wards. Our area is just about as big as my last
area and we're on bikes still. I like being on bikes...especially with
this weather. I got to see Elder Jeong at the transfer meeting which
was AWESOME! Oh, and if you heard about that big Tongan guy who came
in to our mission, yeah. He's in my zone. He's a gentle giant. He's
6'7", 410 lbs and his trainer is about my size. At the meeting he
introduced him like: "This is my new bodyguard..." Haha. My new
companion is awesome! Love the guy already. We live with members, but
not quite like Sister Simon. We live in a renovated garage and it
smells kinda weird...haha. Don't let the word "renovated" make you
think it's nice—it's not very nice. But it works and it's gonna do!
Plus, this is my first time actually having to budget my money because
there isn't all the extra food from Sister Simon. ;) haha. We biked
around and I met some of the auxiliary leaders from both wards. We had
coordination meeting for Oakwood. They're some pretty great members!
Temp: 79°F

Thursday: Weekly planning! It was interesting kind-of leading the
planning session since I'm senior companion. I don't really know what
I'm doing but it went well. We planned for upcoming lessons and stuff.
The area book is kind of a mess, so we were thinking of ways to clean
it up. Their finding hasn't been very productive so we were thinking
of ways to make it more productive. Both wards are pretty slow
regarding current work, but it's about to pick up. And I'm in a very
wealthy part of Peoria, so that's nice! Almost every house is big.
It's awesome! We visited some more auxiliary leaders tonight and the
RS president of the Centennial Ward gave us a box of Thin Mints Girl
Scout cookies! The Holy Ghost totally prompted us to go there. Haha!
;) today marked my six-month mark! Crazy, I know.
Temp: 79°F

Friday: We had district meeting. Our district leader is a
Spanish-speaking Elder named Elder Canny. He's from Norway! His voice
is pretty cool. He's really tall.... His companion, Elder Rodriguez,
came out with me too. The other elders in my district are young too. A
missionary who came out a transfer after me, and his companion who is
in training. Met the bishop of the Centennial Ward and he gave us a
lot of people to go visit.
Temp: 81°F

Saturday: We spent the morning geocoding our area. I mentioned before
that the area book was a wreck. So. I just applied the same method
that my last area was geocoded. For example, in my last area, we split
up the wards into sub-areas. For shaw butte, we did: SB0, SB1..etc. So
for this area we split up the wards into CT0-4, and OW0-3. It's worked
really well so far and have made finding way more productive. We went
out and taught a lady in Centennial Ward who is recently interested
after her son just got baptized into the YSA Ward. We taught her and
she's really receptive. Her name is Brittney and she's from Belize.
I've never felt the Spirit so strongly in a lesson. The words just
came out of mine and Elder Flynn's mouths and they touched her heart.
She is reading the Book of Mormon and is very solid. It's the first
new investigator in centennial Ward in like 8 months. Crazy. It was
kind of funny because she gave us dates (the fruit) as we were leaving
and I HAD TO SAY IT: "We aren't allowed to date...." Hahahaha. We took
them anyway. They're pretty good, actually...
Temp: 82°F

Sunday: It was my first Sunday in the new wards! The Centennial Ward
is HUGE. They fill the front and the overflow. I got to meet Pedro,
who is an investigator. He's 18, a senior in high school, and is
dating one of the laurels. He's really awesome. He actually taught
priests quorum this Sunday...haha. We're waiting on his dad to soften
his heart and let him get baptized. He doesn't want to do it without
having the support from his dad. We also got to meet Leah, a 17
year-old girl who is dating one of the priests. She's interested too
so that's awesome!! We have a lesson with her and her boyfriend's
family Tuesday at their house. Her boyfriend's family is active. She
was at church! After church we went to meet a referral that we just
got and her name is Megan. She's 20 and her boyfriend just got
baptized in the Spanish Ward. She doesn't know Spanish so she wants to
come to our Ward. We set up a time to go teach her so that's awesome!
Two possible new investigators right there!!! Apparently this is super
good for these two wards so I'm excited.


So yeah, this area is awesome. It's slow just like my last area but I
love it. The members and investigators are awesome. I look forward to
my new journey! My address is safe to mail packages and letters to. My
mailing address is:

Elder Kevin Jones
7535 W. Banff Ln
Peoria, AZ 85381

I love you all! Have a wonderful week, pictures are on the way.

Sincerely,

Elder Jones

 Oh, I forgot to mention, Elder Flynn and I are
the zone tech specialists. 



Elder Jones packed and ready to move to Peoria!


Elder Jones, Elder Shurtleff, and a priest from their ward

Elder Jones and Sis Simon before he leaves

Look who Elder Jones sees at the transfer meeting!  Elder Jeong!
Elder Flynn, Elder Jones new companion

The kitchen in the apartment in Peoria

Elder Flynn in action!

Elder Jones Selfie!

Old ward name
Hard at work... notice the orange tree in the background.  I gotta ask about that!

Making an appointment I am sure, but check out those diamond studs on the sunglasses.  I'm not sure they are mission approved!

Favorite Restaurant!!  









Friday, February 13, 2015

Bye bye: Transfers 24th Pday in Phoenix Misson-

Hello everyone! If you couldn't tell by the title of this email, it's
transfer week and I'm getting transferred. With that being said, I
don't have much time to send a long weekly email. I loved this area,
but I'm excited to have further opportunities. I have to go pack now
but I really love you all and can't wait to update y'all more next
week. Send me your updates though! Love you!

Mail things to the mission office for about a week.

Elder Jones

Note from Momma Jones:
Thanks to my detectives in the Phoenix area I have posted Elder Jones new address.  He is in the Peoria/ Peoria North Zone.  He is in the Centennial, and Oakwood wards, I think. He didn't move very far!  Dana said he could have ridden his bike there!  His companion is Elder Flynn.  They trained together at the MTC.  Elder Jones is a senior companion now. 
I sent him his practice pad and sticks a few weeks ago and said he was driving  Elder Shurtleff crazy.  I told Elder Jones that Elder Shurtleff may have requested he be transferred!  
Although Elder Jones sent no pictures I have scoured the Arizona mission Blog and found a few from the transfer meeting, and one Sis Simon posted.
I hope we have more info and pictures Monday.

Elder Jones with his 2 companions he has had in Phoenix, Elder Jeong and Elder Shurtleff.

Elder Shurtleff, Elder Jones and Elder Jensen .  Elders Jensen and Shurtleff were MTC companions

Elder Jones and his first companion Elder Jeong and a mystery Elder.

Elders getting lunch at transfer meeting

Sister Simon and Elder Jones as he is leaving her home.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Super Bowl: Away From Home Edition - 23rd P Day in Phoenix

GO PATRIOTS!!!! This week was really pretty good. I'll go through my journal to review the specifics. I'll be randomly putting in, "GO PATRIOTS!!!" into my letter, so yeah. Not being able to watch the Game (capitalized because it SHOULD BE.) was pretty rough, but it was equally as exciting to hear about it from home. GO PATRIOTS!!!

Monday: It was P-day, and it went by suuuuuper fast. Like, the fastest one so far. It was basically a do-nothing-and-email P-day. I got a good nap in and made some killer brownies. They were delicious! After P-day we had a lesson with the Evans family. It was awesome! A priest named Drew came with us. He just turned 16 so it's cool to have him come out with us. He met us at their complex. He rode his longboard in his shirt and tie. What a cool kid haha. We also had one other lesson with Eliza, who is the 10 year-old. She really wants to get baptized!!
Temp: 68 F (rainy)

Tuesday: We had zone conference! It was great. Three zones got together to have a conference with the mission presidency and the assistants. They focused a lot on setting goals and planning, which are my two weak spots. No matter how many discussions I get on them, I just don't plan very well! It's something I'm working on, though. I hope I'll be at least a decent planner by the end of my mission haha! In addition to the spiritual feast, I got to catch up with some missionary friends who are in different zones. Sadly, Elder Jeong wasn't at my zone conference....yeah we probably won't see each other very much since he's up in Flagstaff and I'm in the Valley. Joe had to cancel our lesson with him. Pretty average day.
Temp: 73 F

Wednesday: The day was great until I screwed up my left index finger. I'll get to that in a second. We had a good lesson with Joe and committed him to stop smoking by February 14 and to be baptized on Feb 28. Hopefully that will go well. He's having doubts that he will be able to quit, but we keep reassuring him that it is possible through the Atonement. We gave him a blessing to help with his addiction recovery. So after coordination meeting, we heard someone playing basketball. We opened the gym doors and it was a less-active 16 year-old kid who is part of the Evans family. He was playing by himself and we had a couple minutes, so we played a quick game of two-on-two. I reached for the ball and it jammed my finger hard. It seriously felt like I broke it for like two days. It was all bent weird and purple. Luckily it wasn't broken because it felt a lot better a couple days ago. I guess that's what I get for playing basketball on a Wednesday haha.
Temp: 76 F

Thursday: We had weekly planning all day. We planned in the mother's room at the church which was a brilliant idea. Those chairs are THE BEST! We planned all through the day and afternoon, and a member took us to Chipotle for dinner. I ate the whole burrito in like five minutes. I was still hungry afterward. To everyone who knows how big those are, yeah, that's pretty impressive. Elder Shurtleff looked over at me and was like, "WOW. That was fast..." Haha. We had exchanges that night with the Zone leaders. I was with Elder Burgoyne. 
Temp: 64 F (rainy)

Friday: I was in the zone leaders' area all day. It was cool because they have a truck! We taught an old guy named Wilbur that morning then went to district meeting. Elder Shurtleff gives great district meetings! A member took us to In-n-Out Burger AND IT WAS SO GOOD. It definitely hit the spot!! I hadn't had it since I was in Utah like two years ago. The truck was super nice and it was cool to bond with Elder Burgoyne since he goes home on Feb 10. I'm gonna miss him!
Temp: 63 F (rainy) GO PATRIOTS!!!

Saturday: We had an open finding day so we knocked on two potential investigators' doors and both 
answered. Neither doors were the people we were looking for, but both said we could come back. It was pretty weird because we hardly ever have any success in that apartment complex. I'm not complaining, though! We got a cool referral for a person who is less-active and her roomate. He isn't a member. They both want us to teach them! They even came to church on Sunday! Pretty sure we saw a land mine on the road...............it was beeping and scary looking. Haha.
Temp: 63 F (rainy)

Sunday: SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! We went to church and after that we taught a less-active member. Since the Super Bowl was in Phoenix, we had to stay in after church and dinner. We met other Elders at the church and played some card games and played hide-and-seek. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PPPPPAAAAATTTTRRRRRIIIIIOOOOOTTTTTSSSSSS!!!!!! :) Can y'all tell I'm excited?!?!
Temp: 66 F

Anyway, it was a good week. Mom and Dad, could you send me a Patriots Super Bowl champion shirt when they come out? I would LOOOOVE IT! :D 
Have a great week everyone. :)

Love,

Elder Jones



Kevin's package arrived!  He is happy, hope his companion and Sis Simon don't mind.

Elder Shurtleff found this light-thing after cleaning. He put it on his head. Yep.

The carpet BEFORE it was changed after we moved everything out.

 Elder Syndergaard on exchange
 My poor finger...haha
zone conference 1/15

zone conference 1/15

zone conference 1/15

zone conference 1/15

zone conference 1/15